In January 2012, three projects were started - the first to improve upon the guides available for main line Ludwig drums from 1963-1972 and to produce a new guide for years 1972-1984 the second to create a guide for Ludwig Standards from the 1968-1973 era and the third to decipher the meaning of the Date Codes which appeared in both main line and Standard drums in the 1971-72 time frame. The inherent limitations of the existing dating guides and their frequent misuse by some in the vintage drum community inspires a fresh look into how to best date and authenticate Ludwig drums. It could just be inexact language which present estimates and approximations as if they are highly precise or an attempt to pump up the seller and make it appear that they are more of an expert than they really are in order to obtain a higher price for their drums. Instead, they state with false authority, precision and accuracy that a particular drum was produced at a particular time 'because the date guides say so.' This phenomenon is seen frequently in online listings and in the opinions of some 'vintage drum experts,' who are often misapplying the same limited tools that are publicly available. It appears that many people do not understand, or perhaps do not wish to understand, the limitations of these tools.

Nonetheless, many people see the existing dating guides as if chiseled in stone. Most knowledgeable of Ludwig drums agree that someone armed with only a serial number cannot reliably pinpoint a date of manufacture of a Ludwig drum. In the 1999-2005 time frame, several guides were published which report known serial number and date stamp combinations and/or show the general relationship between serial number and date.* These addressed the Keystone badge drums of the 1960s and ventured only slightly into the Blue/Olive badges which replaced them in 1969.

Many Ludwig drums, including main line (Keystone and Blue/Olive Badges) and Standards, have dates stamped inside their shells or on paper labels. Ludwig drums have a distinct advantage over Gretsch when it comes to establishing a relationship between serial number and date.

Blue label serial number check